20 Must Read Investing Books

There are many investing books out there that can help investors expand their stock education. This list highlights 20 great wall street books every trader should read.

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This is a classic by William O’Neil, describing the ins and outs of his CANSLIM system for finding future big winners in the stock market and how to time entries and exits. It combines fundamental and technical analysis and is a good guide for new investors.

This is an investment classic that will give the individual investor hope. Peter Lynch explains how Wall Street may not be able to find the best investing opportunities from the start and shows step-by-step how the individual investor can find the next ten-bagger.

This book sheds insight into the ways and means of the Oracle of Omaha. Warren Buffett’s thoughts are insightful and his methods may yield fruitful rewards for investors with enough patience to learn them, understand them and apply them correctly.

This book is a true page turner. It is a breath-taking recount of how a young boy managed to amass one of the largest fortunes by speculating despite going broke a few times in his career. He has timeless advice for investors(“I’ve always made my money from sitting, not thinking”) which will help your trading for years to come.

This is a gem that encompasses investor psychology and system construction. While it may not give you a “Holy Grail” (an unbeatable method to the markets) for trading, it will give you the basics you need to construct a winning system. There is something for everyone in this book.

Currently in its tenth edition, this book is a great first read for those starting a portfolio. Indexing, diversification, trends, bubbles, the value of patience coupled with time, alongside many more core concepts are all pronounced within.

Author Jack Bogle is the founder of The Vanguard Group, known for providing the lowest cost funds in industry. Vanguard is also the largest asset management house in the world with over $3 trillion in total assets under management. Jack’s message is simple, keep costs low and invest in market indexes for the long run. Jack’s other book, Common Sense on Mutual Funds, is another best seller and breaks down mutual fund investing.

Using his Oaktree Capital client memos as a foundation, Howard assembled a collection of the 21 most important things to know about investing. The book introduces multiple keys to long-term success including, “second-level thinking,” the price/value relationship, patient opportunism, and defensive investing.

Explores the basic principles of investing in the stock market. The book breaks down the author’s proven “magic formula investing” method of outperforming the market by investing in quality companies at discounted prices.

This book, along with Soros’s latest book, The New Financial Paradigm explain the author’s theory of reflexivity and how it relates to the market. Though it may not provide a direct system for trading, it is extremely thoughtful and deepens one’s understanding of how the financial markets work. The book may be a bit dense but it is rewarding for those who are willing to finish it.

This book, which would go along well with “The Black Swan”, explains the author’s thoughts about how randomness plays a larger role in our lives than we expect. For traders, this would imply that risks are usually large than we expect. Also, it would mean that some things in the financial world aren’t exactly what they seem.

Tulipomania, the South Sea bubble and the Mississipi Land scheme are covered in this book, showing how herd mentality worked to create bubbles in past eras. It may serve as an interesting read as well as a guide for dealing with future bubbles.

This unseeming book is written by Philip Fisher, who Buffett credits with most of his success. In the age of quantitative finance, this book is a must-read for those who want to understand how to inspect a company qualitatively.

As the winner of the 2013 Nobel Prize in Economics, Robert Shiller understands the markets and has spent his career studying their movements. An author of multiple books, Irrational Exuberance explores how trends turn into booms and ultimately bubbles that burst.

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